The Tomorrow Knight Rumours
by the stargate time traveller
Summary: Barbara Gordon begins to hear rumours of the new Batman. Post "Rebirth"


Disclaimer - I don't own Batman Beyond, or any other incarnation of the Dark Knight. You know the drill.

I've decided to begin writing a few things for Batman Beyond.

Enjoy.

* * *

The Tomorrow Knight Rumours.

Commissioner Barbara Gordon sighed as she clocked into work. She had just had a very exhausting early morning meeting with the mayor of Gotham City concerning the investigation into the crashed helijet in Gotham Bay only a few nights ago in the vicinity of Wayne-Powers, but the mayor had been personally asked by his 'friend' of Wayne-Powers CEO, Derek Powers not to look into the matter.

So the GCPD had been 'politely asked' not to investigate. Yet another example of just how the GCPD was being manipulated by Powers, but truthfully it wasn't as though she had much in the way of choice; when Powers had taken over Bruce's company when he had retired from being Batman, Powers had started to spin a massive web, especially in political circles. He started foundations to help people, hosted galas and charity fundraisers all to present himself as a compassionate figure, a philanthropist.

It worked, so long as you were a corrupt little politician who wanted to look good and wanted to be seen amongst powerful friends even though it was like making a deal with the devil. Powers didn't care about anybody but himself and whatever profit he made in his businesses, but he had made powerful friends, and if there was one thing she had learnt during her careers as Batgirl and as Commissioner of the GCPD, it was to know which battle to fight, and when to look the other way while making plans to investigate quietly.

She had seen through Power's facade instantly, but there was nothing she could do except to play the game of politics and it was a dirty game she found hard to cope with sometimes.

Well, she would order the official investigation ended and she hoped Powers would be satisfied with that; the mayor would be fooled, he was too into maintaining his own precious image and looking out for advancing his social status in the city.

But Powers would be a hard man to fool since he had managed to take over so many companies in a shrewd manner before he managed to take over Bruce's company while sidestepping all kinds of accusations made towards him. If Powers could last this long, he would have learnt how to both cover his tracks and recognise when someone was digging into his operations.

Entering her office, Barbara sat down and collected her thoughts.

She hated how things had turned out sometimes, she honestly did. Ever since she had stepped down from her role as Batgirl when Bruce refused to stop being Batman, she had joined the GCPD and saw the brand of vigilante justice Batman stood for as wrong. As Batman, Bruce could not testify to anything; he had just left it for the GCPD, but he had been a force for good in the city.

But he had driven everyone away - herself, Dick, Tim, Selina, Wonder Woman, and all the others (she had no idea what had happened to Alfred even to this day, and no matter how hard he had looked, Bruce had never managed to track down his surrogate father), and then he had stopped being Batman. She didn't know why.

Life went on, and she still served the city, though this time in real life instead of wearing some costume like a kid, beating up bad guys. But she hated the fact she had to cosy up to people like Derek Powers, and this was the latest example of just how far his influence stretched.

_And yet, I never did find out what Powers was doing that night, _she pondered quietly to herself. _Usually, Powers offers some kind of excuse, and it was always a face to face encounter while the Mayor backs him up after a private five-minute meeting. That didn't happen today. The Mayor just met me on his own, said Powers was engaged and told me to drop the investigation by saying it was an inconsequential accident. But if that's true, why didn't Powers just tell me himself? He usually does. Also, why has he waited for a few days since the 'accident,' usually he is more on the ball than that? _

Red flags had been raised in the first thirty seconds of the meeting she'd had with the mayor, and she swore to continue the investigation into the crash in the bay. But by running an investigation behind the mayors back would cause problems for her if he realised it, or if Powers was tipped off. God alone knew how many of her people were on his payroll - she'd suspected it for a long time, but Powers was so slippery it was hard to find anything to touch the bastard.

Barbara was still turning things around in her mind when her PA called through the intercom. "Commissioner, Captain Rojas wishes to speak to you."

Barbara snapped out of her thoughts and touched the intercom, deciding the meeting would be a good distraction. "Yes, send him in."

"Yes, commissioner."

The door to her office opened, and Captain Rojas stepped in, the light from the overhead lighting panels highlighting the grey and white hairs in his moustache and thinning hair. Rojas was a cop who had risen steadily in the ranks to Captain before he decided he didn't want to rise up any higher. Rojas was one of those dependable cops who lived in the police, watched as it caused friction in his marriage and family life to the point where his loved ones didn't see him often, but he had seen things in his time most cops would have a hard time recovering from.

"Hi, Nick," Barbara greeted, gesturing to a seat, "this is a surprise. What is it?"

Rojas placed a chip on her desk before he sat down. "We've been getting reports, rumours along the docks of smuggling ops being broken up. Some of them we've known about for a while, though we never had any knowledge of where the stuff was being brought in. We get a tip-off and when we get there, they're all beaten and tied up with the contraband lying neatly nearby."

Barbara picked up the chip and slotted it neatly into her computer, and after entering her access code she was able to run the chip, but she skimmed through the first few lines of the first report. It was just like Rojas had described - the precinct would receive a tip-off leading to a part of the docks and when they arrived they had needed to call an ambulance because when the GCPD detectives had arrived on the scene, they had found the smugglers beaten and bloodied with their contraband untouched, just lying there waiting for them.

Rojas was silent as she read the report, knowing what it would say. The reports went on to describe the interviews with the smugglers; they had been too frightened to bluster or to be cocky with the police, not after what had happened to them.

"The witnesses said they saw something black with white eyes," Barbara said suddenly, "do we have anything more on that?"

"No, but whatever it was that attacked those smugglers was very fast," Rojas replied, "but there's more. For the last couple of days, we've been hearing about muggers and even a few Jokerz gangs being broken up."

Barbara made a face at the mention of the Jokerz, wondering what it said about a society where the real Joker who had terrorised Gotham and even Metropolis from time to time whenever he'd worked with Lex Luthor during those mad schemes had been allowed to spread his poison to the youth.

The Jokerz were one criminal organisation Barbara would love, really love, to see the back of. While they weren't as insane as the Joker himself, the Jokerz were not above committing murder, but they saw the Joker as some funny man, a clown with a gun. They didn't realise what kind of a psychopath Joker really was.

God alone knew what would happen if they ever discovered what the bastard was like. Indeed it was sometimes impossible for her to think about the Jokerz and the Joker, and not think about that alternate timeline Bruce and the rest of the JLU had encountered where the future was a hellhole, the JLU was practically wiped out, and the Jokerz had managed to take the Joker's quest to spread madness and destruction to a global height.

Just the thought alone was enough to make her thankful the Jokerz, in their current incarnation, were nothing more than amateurs, but they were still annoying.

The Joker was long since dead and truthfully Barbara was thankful he was.

After firmly pushing away the memories she had of the Joker, especially the ones of what he had done with Tim, Barbara focused on Rojas again.

"Broken up?" she echoed. "By what? By whom?"

Rojas sighed surprisingly and gave her a look that showed he had heard something but he wasn't quite sure what to believe. "You're not going to believe this, but they say they were attacked by a guy who was dressed in a costume like Batman."

"Batman!?" Barbara jumped in her seat, startled by the unexpected mention of Gotham's famous vigilante.

Rojas nodded. "Yeah, that's how we felt."

Barbara needed a moment to regain her composure, but while her mind was desperate for the news she remembered she would need a bit more to go on to form any proper opinion and thought on the matter. "Do all the reports come with a similar theme?" she asked slowly, giving the impression she hoped the answer was a no.

But Rojas shook his head. "We've got more than one sighting; a few of them show this 'Batman' appearing, and he's barely seen, but there are quite a few sightings made by other crooks that he's there."

Barbara leaned back in her seat, lost in thought. "I'll arrange for a meeting with all the Captains of the Precincts later to keep an eye out for this 'Batman'," she said at last, "in the meantime I want you to find out all you can."

Rojas nodded and left the office, recognising the dismissal when he saw it. Once he was out Barbara locked the door and went back over what she'd just learnt.

Batman was back? After all these years, it just didn't seem real. She just could not believe it, especially since Bruce had retired years ago after saving the life of Bunny Vreeland. Thinking about Batman's last night made Barbara close her eyes in sorrow. After she had stopped being Batgirl, Barbara had woken up and realised the kind of justice Bruce preached did not work. It was the police who worked to put criminals behind bars, all Bruce did was catch a few and hand them over, he didn't have to stand in trials and listen to the never-ending cross-examination, and she had followed in the footsteps of her father as a result.

Finding out what had happened to Bruce had turned out to be impossible, at least at first. But it was mostly guesswork and deduction, really - not only was Bruce refusing to meet or see anyone, but Barbara noticed how Bunny had refused to talk at all except to say Batman had saved her life, which was not unusual. But what was unusual were the stories a couple in the gang who'd kidnapped the girl.

They said Batman had pulled out a gun and was prepared to kill, something which had disturbed Barbara instantly. Many people claimed Batman was a fanatic, dedicated to the point of insanity on what he did, but Barbara knew Bruce; he didn't kill anyone, at all. Sure, when he had worn the cape and cowl he had frequently put criminals into hospital suffering from multiple fractures and broken body parts, and many had considered him not quite with it mentally since he had donned a cape and cowl while playing hero like an overgrown child, but the fundamental truth was obvious; Bruce Wayne did not kill, he did not use guns or any other kind of firearm.

When you saw what guns had done to him, you would not be surprised. Ever since he had seen how a gun had killed his parents, Bruce had vowed never to pick up a gun or even think of using one, but when she had heard what that kidnapper had claimed and how Bunny Vreeland had been silent on the whole thing after she'd been kidnapped, Barbara had slowly come to believe the account, and for one extremely good reason.

Criminals knew the Batman did not kill, or use guns. A few had come up with plans to frame Batman for murders involving guns in the past, but that had been a long time ago because Batman had always found proof to conclude he had nothing to do with it, and so the idea stalled and died an unlamented death; the most dramatic example of him being accused of murder was during that mess with that murderous vigilante called the Phantasm, but the full story was known only to Bruce, and he wasn't talking, and it wasn't something she had dwelled on for a long time before now.

If the kidnappers had wanted to come up with something surely they'd have come up with something a bit more imaginative?

When she had heard the news, Barbara had been shocked and she hadn't known what she could do about it for some time before she realised there may have been a good reason why Bruce had broken one of the most important rules of his moral code.

Bruce Wayne had a very public life despite being Batman, and as he had grown older he had begun suffering from heart attacks frequently. That was the reason why he had changed the appearance of his costume and turned it into a powered exoskeleton in order to support him and give him the needed strength to go on with his career as Batman.

Any ordinary vigilante would have given up shortly after the first heart attack, but not Bruce. Barbara smiled as she thought fondly of her old friend/mentor/lover, knowing one of the deep-set reasons why he had carried out his precious mission in the first place was to make sure no other child went through what he had. While she hated what he had become, Barbara still cared about him, and she had no idea what it had done to him mentally to retire like that.

They may have lost contact to the point where it became infrequent but Bruce's heart attacks frightened Barbara because she knew it wouldn't take much to kill him, and he was still too stubborn to give up being Batman. When she had heard the kidnapper's story of how Batman had picked up a gun and threatened him with it, it hadn't taken Barbara long to work out what had happened and her sympathy for Bruce had spiked.

Okay, at first she had been pleased he had finally seen sense; Barbara had been fairly jaded back then, especially since she finally saw nothing she had done had really helped much in the long term, and it had been a while before she realised just the thought of breaking that code of his had hurt him more than anyone could imagine, and with Alfred long since gone (she had no idea what had happened to the kindly English butler, she had heard stories he had received a message to return home and never came back to Bruce, but it was doubtful he was still alive though she hoped they would find out what happened to him), Bruce had no-one else to turn too, especially since he had driven Tim and Dick away.

She had tried to visit him but Bruce had refused to let her in. In the end, she had just spoken to him through the intercom, but Bruce had not replied. He hadn't said one word even when she had dared him to comment on what the kidnapper said. In the end, she had left, her mind torn and she had walked away and got back to her life.

More than once she had heard over the years as she rose through the ranks in the police wishes Batman would return, but Barbara had not been one of them. Batman had had his time, and now it was time for them all to move on.

Now she was faced with a big problem. There was no doubt in her mind there was someone out there, and it may be someone who had become so frustrated with the lack of any real justice in the city that they had worked to become the next and newest incarnation of Batman - the idea of someone taking the law into their own hands because there wasn't any justice hurt Barbara more than most; after everything she and Bruce had fought for, corruption and crime were still there in Gotham, but she had learnt it would always be there.

It was even more painful to her because she was doing what her father had tried to do during his own tenure; do the best you could, even if it felt like you weren't getting anywhere.

At the same time, she couldn't help but wonder if Bruce was the one in the suit, or if he had built some kind of android to do the work for him. But she doubted it; Bruce Wayne had never liked it whenever someone had fought his battles for him, having a Robin like Tim around before the Joker captured and tortured the younger kid and Nightwing and herself was one thing, but Bruce Wayne liked being in the thick of things.

She wondered for a moment if he had found one of those weird Lazarus Pits she'd heard from Dick about after her old friend told her about that centuries-old villain Ra's Al Ghul who was essentially immortal and had threatened the human race more than once because he believed humanity was destroying Earth's flora and fauna which made him an eco-terrorist on a scale even Poison Ivy herself could not surpass.

She pushed that aside even if it did have a grain of realism there.

Barbara leaned back in her seat. She was in two minds about the idea of a Batman in Gotham once more. On the one hand, it would cause the ordinary criminals to back down and be scared stiff… but it inevitably led to more colourful characters appearing. Barbara had learnt her lessons after seeing what Joker and Harley had done to Tim; she, Bruce, Dick and Tim, and all the other heroes of the JLU made people so scared they would create monsters, and while Batman's old enemies were long since gone, the potential of a new Batman, if he did exist, opened the door for a new rogues' gallery and that would mean people would get hurt.

The thought made her shudder, but it also made her determined to keep her eyes and ears opened in case there was a new Batman.

She was beginning to dread the potential casualty count.

* * *

As the weeks passed there were more sightings of Batman, and they were becoming more numerous and more public as people caught images of a bat-shaped silhouette int the night sky. Naturally, the media caught wind of it, and they went along with the story of Batman finally returned to Gotham while simultaneously saying it was about time someone cleaned up the city.

But there was another development that had taken her and many others by surprise. Bruce Wayne was no longer reclusive, he had begun once more entering city life, and he was never far away from a young teenager with black hair who was apparently his assistant. His name was Terry McGinnis and Barbara immediately looked him up, though she had noted the name 'McGinnis' at once, remembering the Warren McGinnis case and she wondered if he and this Terry were related. One look at the file indicated that Terry was Warren's son, and he had been apparently murdered by the Jokerz, something which didn't seem right when she double checked. Since when did the Jokerz break into people's homes and kill them in cold blood?

Barbara had been taken by surprise when she had heard about the report and when she had gone through the interview the police had with Terry when it was discovered he'd been chased by a gang of Jokerz that very night, but the detectives in charge of the investigation had ruled out the gang instantly since Terry hadn't said or done anything to let them know where they lived, and Barbara saw their point. She had seen scenes where the Jokerz had caused havoc no-where near the level of damage the Joker had done at his peak, but they were nothing more than a gang of kids playing a big game, though more than a few of them were thugs.

But as she'd read the report on Terry McGinnis, one thing had stood out. The kid had a criminal record, and okay while he hadn't re-offended since he had spent time in Juvie, she doubted he would be the type of person Bruce would recruit to become Robin, never mind Batman!

So what had changed?

Barbara sighed and sat behind her desk and accessed her computer, and after a bit of digging, she rewatched as Terry fought off the Jokerz who'd focused on a girl with Asiatic features in a line going into a club. She guessed the girl was Terry's girlfriend, but as she watched him fight off the gang before grabbing that motorcycle she watched as drove off, and she accessed the police CCTV network and programmed the computer to search for several of the plate numbers on that very night and entered a forward time index from the moment Terry had ridden that motorcycle away.

Terry and the Jokerz had left a nice trail which was simple for her to find, but what surprised her the most was he took them outside the city close to where Wayne Manor was. Barbara was annoyed and a little put out when she found she couldn't tell what had happened next. She wondered how McGinnis had found out about Batman - there was little doubt in her mind he had; why else would Bruce be appearing in public more frequently these days when he had become famous for his reclusiveness, stuck in that big mansion of his until he had reached the point where he had been virtually forgotten?

But how had McGinnis found out, especially since Bruce had gone to so much trouble to hide the entrances to the Batcave? In the end, she decided it didn't really matter.

She had the feeling she would one day meet this new 'Batman.'


End file.
